louistraveler5

My husband and I have been to Europe once, Paris in October 2008, so this will be our FIRST time to Italy. We are thinking about going in 2010. Our vacation will most likely be 10 days in Italy and two days for travel days.

My question is: If you were going to Italy for the FIRST time, which area/cities do you recommend we visit? Here are the selections:

A) Florence/Tuscany & Cinque Terre (Is Cinque Terre to much of a stretch from Florence for a visit of only 10 days?)

B) Venice & Florence

C) Rome (all itself for 10 days)

D) Rome & Amalfi Coast

Thanks!

zoecat

I think you have just outlined your next 4 visits to Italy. All seem reasonable combinations for 10 days. Any would be great for a first visit. I say just pick one and enjoy, then return again and again. What time of the year will you be visiting?

franco

Difficult to tell as long as we don't know anything about your likes and dislikes. What I would exclude first hand is option B - too rushed in comparison with the three other selections that are more in the slow travel direction, as thus intelligent, laudable plans You have time to add Cinque Terre to Florence in 10 days, but not Venice!
Next question: which season are you likely going to travel? The Cinque Terre are forbiddingly overrun in summer...
But this seasonal question apart, you need to tell us more about you and your interests to get reasonable advice what to choose between A, C and D!

sassy_cat

We squeezed in Rome and Florence in a week. I loved Rome and could easily spend 10 days there but Florence is only an hour or two train ride away so why not Rome and Florence (split 8/2 would be my preference).

The big 3; Rome, Florence and Venice is a popular choice for first timers.

Amalfi coast depends on the season (I'd skip it in winter)

Big_Red

Your ideas are right on track.
Idea No 1 - Fly open-jaw (fly into to one city and fly home from a different city). By flying open-jaw, you do not waste a day returning to where you started from.

You seem to be concentrating on Venice, Rome and Florence and contemplating adding either Amalfi or the Cinque Terre. Research the air connections from your home city to Venice, Rome and Florence. [My home city has direct flights to Venice and Rome, yours might or might not.] Pisa is a good alternative airport for Florence, but even Pisa has limited trans-Atlantic service.

I would lean towards Rome and somewhere else rather than Rome alone. The decision of Option A, B, D or C is really yours. It depends on the balance of city and non-city that you want for your trip. You might look at travel books from your library or Amazon to help you make decisions.

Are you thinking 10 days plus 2 travel days?

liberosette

Season is a very important variable. For Rome and Florence every season is good, but also I suggest to avoid Costiera Amalfitana in winter, Cinque Terre in full summer (July-August). For Venice the mid-seasons (fall or spring) are better than other periods of the year, and if it is possible it is always better to avoid week-ends and holidays like Easter.
The rest is in your preference: if you like history and you are not afraid of crowds, choose the best: "Rome + Florence"; if you like not only art but also nature and landscapes, and you are ready to rent a car for a while, choose a combination "Florence + Toscana" or "Rome + surroundings of Rome"; if you don't like the idea of driving cars in Italy, you can choose a "Florence + 5 Terre" combination. But if your trip is in the right time of the year, IMO don't give up Venice for any reason in the world...

louistraveler5

I'm sorry I didn't include where we were flying from or what season I would like to travel.
We are from Austin, TX and would like to in September/October of 2010.
We are actually debating if we should go to Italy OR Greece. If we go to Greece then we would like to go to Athens & Santorini. Either trip will be September/October.

sf7307

I think you also have to know your style of travel. Franco has given you advice that assumes you are the "slowtrav" type. I'm not, and I personally wouldn't spend 10 days in just Florence and Venice. For a first trip, I'd spend 4 days in Rome, 2 in Florence and 2 in Venice (leaving 2 half-days for inter-city travel).

zeppole

Sounds to me that if you are torn between Italy and Athens and Santorini, you might very much enjoy a trip that included Rome, Naples and the Amalfi. These are places with strong connections to Greece historically, so when you take your next trip, you will experience some fascinating connections -- as well as some extraordinary beauty along the Amalfi coast.

For 10 days, I would split the time in Italy evenly between Rome and further south, and be sure to include Paestum south of Amalfi.

Peter_S_Aus

I'd do six days in Venice and four days in Florence. Or all the time in Venice, with a day trip or two to Verona, Padua etc, in which case hire Franco's favourite apartment in Venice. I'd certainly arrive in Italy via Venice.

annhig

hi,

ditto what Peter said.

regards, ann

Clau

We were in Italy for the first time in September 2007 for ten days. We flew open jaw into Rome and out of Venice. We did 4 nights in Rome,3 nights in Florence and 3 nights in Venice. We travelled by train from city to city. We thought it was a good split.

Clau

zeppole

I'm not much of a believer in "First time in XXXXX" travel planning, which no other country but Italy seems to suffer so much of, but I do want to interrupt here (since I live in Italy) to say that if you want to see Italy, spending 6 out of 10 days in Venezia is not going to give you much of a glimpse of Italy.

Venice is an extremely popular foreign tourist destination because of it's many canals, but historically and now because of mass tourism, it is quite distinct from core Italian culture, because of the dominating foreign influence. Also, while some people find Venice marvelous for long stays, the absence of gardens, greenery, trees and other growing things in Venice can be positively depressing if you enjoy natural surroundings.

I would really recommend forget that idea that Italy needs to be approached as some kind of grade school experience. Figure out how you like to spend your vacation dollars and time off from your job, and then plan accordingly. If you are interested in seeing Roman ruins, they aren't in Venice. Likewise, if you hope to enjoy a lot of great sunshine and pasta amid native Italians and gorgeous scenery, Venice isn't that either. If you would like to know about Byzantium and the Austro-Hungarian and Napoleonic influences on Italy, plus be in an antique urban area rather than in natural surroundings, Venice is fantastic.

zeppole

I wanted to add that if being in a completely car-free city is more important to you than spending time among the car-and-motorcycle mad Italians, Venice is also a good choice.

franco

Oh zeppole - absence of gardens & greenery, in Venice? Sorry, but the rest of your (excellent, as usual) advice notwithstanding, this is a fairly strange perception. Venice is a particularly green city. First, there are so many gardens in the historical center; ok, most of them are private, but not all of them - the Giardini, the Giardinetti, the park north of S. Geremia we were discussing recently on another thread with Ann and Peter, the Giardino Papadopoli... But what's more important, you seem to completely forget the marvellous lagoon that surrounds Venice - and is so easily reachable by vaporetto. What an impressive, and what a desolate landscape. If, for example, you take no. 13 and go to S. Erasmo, the vegetable island providing much of the gorgeous produce available on the Rialto market, you can walk for hours amidst fields and gardens, and will hardly see any people, let alone cars. The same no. 13 will take you to Lazzaretto Nuovo, another completely green (and historically extremely interesting) island; and going back, you can either go round S. Erasmo via Treporti to Lido, always through a magnificently green and empty part of the lagoon; or, perhaps even better, go back via Le Vignole, the second vegetable island with a tiny village and otherwise just green, green, green: one of the most fascinating experiences in Venice, standing on grassland and viewing the city's northern skyline quite nearby (Gesuitti, S. Pietro di Castello, S. Francesco della Vigna...), with an estimated average of two tourists per month on this island. Not to mention the trip to Torcello, which is another extraordinarily impressive experience for nature lovers...

Sorry, louistraveler, for this long digression, but I just had to play my usual part of the advocate of Venice!

annhig

hi franco,

ref the gardens of Venice, when I was researching our trip to Venice last Easter, I came across this web-site offering guided tours round some fo them. unfortunately it was too early in the year for us to take part.

http://www.tours-italy.com/venice-pr...et_gardens.htm

Have you ever seen any?

regards, ann

franco

Though I've seen some (but only few) of the private gardens privately, I've never done that guided tour, unfortunately. I know the book, though, that they're referring to on that website, a highly recommended book.

dolphoto

Given that one cannot do everything, I would take Venice out of the equation. Other areas are closer together, allowing you to experience more in a shorter time. The recommendation on open jaw is right on. This might not work for you, depending on your travel style, but here's an itinerary I did a few years ago that was wonderful. Granted, I'd been to Rome before, so I chose to cut that end short, but I'm not a big fan of the city either.

Four days in Florence followed by the train to Naples. Rental car from Naples to the Amalfi Coast, stopping in Pompeii. On the Amalfi Coast, I stayed in Positano, but there are several good options. Of my three days on the Amalfi Coast, one was dedicated to a drive (very easy) down to Paestum which has beautiful Greek ruins and a lovely little museum. Driving back to Rome, I returned the car at the airport before going into the city.